Common prescription policy:The European Commission has adopted pan-EU rules on a minimum list of elements to be included in a medical prescription when taken by a patient travelling from one EU country to another.
The provisions on a common way to identify the patient, the prescriber and the prescribed product are to be put into national law by the member states by October 25th next. The commission says that co-ordination of medical prescriptions for both medicinal products and medical devices will improve the authentication of cross-border prescriptions. It is estimated it will translate into an extra 200,000 prescriptions every year.
Friendly business:The Age Friendly Business Recognition Scheme encourages businesses to improve the customer experience for older people. Run by the Ageing Well Network, it will host training programmes for businesses this year. Tel: 01-612 7040 or see agefriendlycounties.com
Spiritual wellbeing:Being spiritual may give life deeper meaning but it can also mess up your mind, research suggests. A study in the British Journal of Psychiatry said people professing to be spiritual, but not conventionally religious, were more likely to suffer from mental challenges. Prof Michael King, University College London, wrote: "Our main finding is that people who had a spiritual understanding of life had worse mental health than those with an understanding that was neither religious nor spiritual."